The Supreme Court on Wednesday observed that a woman’s body is her temple and there should be no mediation and no compromise in rape cases.
An apex court bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra described as a spectacular error and lack of sensitivity on the part of a lower court which had allowed a rapist to go scot free by accepting an agreement on wedlock.
While hearing the case the apex court maintained that courts cannot take a soft approach on the issue.
The bench maintained that any approach of settlement in a rape case is against dignity of a woman.
The order came while accepting the Madhya Pradesh government’s plea challenging a lower court’s acquitting a man accused of rape.
The top court’s order comes a week after Madras High Court Justice P Devadass referred a case of a rapist, who was awarded seven years imprisonment by a trial court, to its mediation centre to settle the matter taking note of the future of the victim, now a mother of a child.
Justice P Devadass, holding that alternative dispute resolution such as mediation is now being used in criminal cases said, “In fact, even in Islam, Hinduism and Christianity there are instances of solving the disputes in a non-belligerent manner. The result of it is very good because there is no victor, no vanquished.”
Granting interim bail to the accused Mohan, the judge in his order said he has already referred a similar matter in February for mediation which has yielded a good result and nearing happy resolution.
